1More S20 vs Boytond YYK-S19
1More S20 https://a.co/d/6bpa0dT
The S20 are a comfortable pair of clip-on style open-air earbuds. They come in black, blue, and purple. I bought them in blue for a change from the black sea of boring earbuds available from every other audio brand. The case is rounded and relatively compact; it is a little larger than my favorite earbud case, the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro and Galaxy Buds Live case. There is no wireless charging for the case, just a USB-C port on the bottom along with a reset button. There is a red/green LED on the front and some reasonable branding. Opening the case reveals the buds, which are placed in labeled left and right openings.
The bodies themselves are pretty small for this style of earbud. The front section that goes into your ear has a large speaker grille built into a nearly perfectly round body. The stem is short but flexible, and the rear section is about 1.5x the size of the front portion, which in theory, should add stabilization and keep the earbud from weighing down the inside of your ear. In practice, from a comfort perspective, this shape works well for my ears. They are reasonably comfortable to wear for long periods of time and didn't cause any soreness or discomfort. But from a sound perspective, this shape did not seem to suit my ears at all. I could never find a position for them to sit in my ears where I felt the sound was being correctly delivered into my ear canal. I could hear them, but the sound seemed to be going mainly away from my ear canal. Only if I held them in place could I get a sense of the sound they produced. Once I let them go, I lost volume and any sense of the quality of the sound coming from them.
The microphone on the 1More performs well in a quiet environment. When I recorded the audio with my phone, my voice came across clearly and with reasonable volume. And because the buds don't block your ears, you're able to hear your own voice with no issues, and you don't feel as if you need to shout to be heard.
Connectivity was very spotty for me. I live in an old house with plaster walls, and many Bluetooth audio products struggle to maintain a solid connection through more than one wall or through multiple rooms. I count it a success when I can still hear my audio in my kitchen. The 1More do not successfully maintain a connection in my kitchen, so I wouldn't use them when I'm doing chores around the house. These are buds I'd use when stationary at my desk or when I know I'm going to be carrying the connected device around with them.
I had a terrible time with the controls on the 1More and gave up using them after a while. I could usually get the buds to cause audio to start, but getting it to stop was an exercise in futility. I almost always resorted to using the connected device instead. Do not buy these if touch control performance is important to you.
My overall verdict on the 1More is mixed. From holding them closer to my ear canals, I do think the sound they produce is clear and relatively balanced for this style of earbud where producing bass is very challenging. They did not seem to produce more or even the same bass as other more expensive open ear earbuds in my collection, but I thought the sound was good for audiobooks, podcasts, and YouTube videos. I would not use them for music, not just because they don't work well for my ears, but because I did not find the sound balanced nor dynamic enough to meet my needs for music listening for anything beyond basic background noise. If these buds work well for your ears, I do think they are worth the money. If I had purchased these from Amazon and not direct from 1More, I'd probably return them as they aren't going to be very good for me to compare against future earbuds of this type.
Boytond YYK-S19 https://a.co/d/5rMSvGT
These open ear earbuds are usually available on Amazon for a very low price. I scored my pair for $21, and at my last price check, they were available with a coupon for even less than that. That makes these very inexpensive and perhaps a good backup option even if you end up going with something more expensive as your everyday audio product. The case is a basic black oval with a small screen on the front to show charging status for the buds and case. Having the screen is very handy, but I will note that on at least one occasion, the screen failed to work at all, and I had to plug it in to get it to start working again. Sometimes you do get what you pay for...
Touch controls for the Boytond aren't any better in my experience than the ones on the 1More. I could sometimes get play/pause to work, but more often than not, controls would fail to register. As with the 1More, I just used my phone to control everything.
The bodies are much bigger than the 1More, but the speaker grilles are noticeably smaller. Perhaps because the shape is bigger and therefore takes up more space in your ears, these had a more secure fit that performed better for me in the audio department. I was able to get suitable volume at lower levels and voices were clear and clean. The highs and lows weren't as present; I'd call the bass virtually non-existent and weaker than usual even for this style of earbud, but the mids where voices live was just fine. I find that these work best for spoken word as well. Podcasts and audiobooks sounded good and YouTube videos (at least those not heavy on music) also sounded fine. But even though I was able to get much more volume out of them than the 1More, I would use almost anything else in my audio collection to listen to music as music did not have the vibrancy and body I expect from a good audio product. But because they were nice and clear for voice, I found myself reaching for them over the 1More time and time again.
There is also another reason why I found myself reaching for the Boytond: connectivity. I could walk around my house with them on and never lose connection. I could go downstairs to my basement and address my laundry and not lose connection. I could go out of my front door, close the front door, walk down my porch, and go to my mailbox to collect my mail and still not lose connection. This being the case, I found myself reaching for them when I knew I'd be on the move during the day.
But it's not all rosy despite the great connection strength. Again, I think because the bodies on these buds are so much larger than the 1More, they became uncomfortable after a while. I could not wear them all day. I usually had to remove them after an hour or so because of the inevitable pain they would cause.
As with the 1More, the microphones produce clear audio with reasonable volume. They will work fine in a quiet environment, but neither product would necessarily be my first choice for phone calls.
I maintain that if the 1More shape and size work for your ears that they are the safer and better purchase. 1More makes solid products that generally work well over time and don't fall apart in the first month. The Boytond screen does not give me hope that they will have any kind of longevity. But because they are inexpensive, I do still think they could be a good backup pair of earbuds for when you're not stationary at your desk or you just want something simple for listening to podcasts or audiobooks during your day or maybe out for a walk in the world.
The specs on these devices are basic, but the 1More does offer wireless lossless with LDAC support and a newer Bluetooth version of 5.4 over the Boytond's 5.3. They Boytond product page claims water resistance, but the box they come in does not reference this. I would not get them wet. The 1More do indicate on the box that they are IPX5 rated, so you could wear them outside in some unexpected rain.
Check out the video review for a closer look at these earbuds.
